Making Life Work

By: John Klassek

    We had almost finished dinner at the restaurant when a man in a black suit approached us and asked whether he could perform a few magic tricks for us. I politely declined his offer.

    He then quite happily made his way to the next table. I couldn’t help but to curiously watch him ply his tricks there, and what he did was quite amazing. He threw a red ball into the air and it simply disappeared! The look of surprise and fascination was evident on the faces of everyone seated at that table. “Is seeing believing?” I wondered.

    A friend of mine once lamented that he had never seen any miracles in his life. He implied that our belief in what really matters might be enhanced by being witness to some supernatural...

From Ronald L. Dart’s Born to Win Notes, written by Allie Dart  

    Years ago, when I was in charge of a small college, we had a dress code. It was far short of wearing a uniform, and had to do with things such as haircuts for the guys and modesty for the girls. Most students complied and got on with more important things like their studies. But some complained that we were making them into yellow pencils—all of them just alike.

    When I heard that, I had to laugh. But it is not surprising, given the psychology of young people who are searching for identity and self-expression. Having spent four years in the Navy, where we not only wore uniforms, we had to maintain a short haircut and shine our shoes, I wondered what all the hullabaloo was about.

...

From the Program Notes of Ronald L. Dart

    When you hear the word “Pentecost” do you automatically relate it to what happens among charismatic Christian groups today? Pentecost is actually older than the New Testament church. Considering the significance of what happened on this day, it’s astonishing that so many Christian churches know so little about this most important day, and so few even keep it or take note of it.

    Let’s consider one statement from the Book of Acts. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they [Jesus’s disciples] were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). But to do what? It is beyond dispute that they were there to observe the Feast of Pentecost. These were all Israelites. So, the disciples had observed...

From Ronald L. Dart’s Born to Win Notes

What has made you and me friends is the Bible, Jesus Christ and his Father, and the Holy Spirit. It is here that we have found common ground. It is here that we find a spirit of brotherhood and friendship. I think the Apostle John must have felt the same way when he wrote his first epistle.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship...

By: Lenny Cacchio

My oldest daughter first saw the movie, Toy Story 3, while studying abroad. She thoroughly enjoyed the flick, but had to admit that, when viewed in Spanish, some of the humor was lost in translation.

Sometimes I wonder if the same thing doesn’t happen with the Bible. The Bible was composed originally in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and includes almost every genre of literature we know—poetry, history, biography, legal commentary, drama, philosophical treatises, personal correspondence, and just flat-out good storytelling.

But what about humor? Does it get lost in the translation? Or were the biblical authors, a gang of disgruntled prophets, detached journalists, and pious poets who couldn’t be bothered with a bit of...

  By: Ronald L. Dart

    Years ago, a friend told me that I was an apologist. I would have been flattered, had I known what it meant. It was somewhat later that I encountered one of the greatest of Christian apologists, C. S. Lewis. Recently, I came across a quotation from C. S. Lewis that explained a vague disquiet that follows me around. "Apologists," he concluded, "can be saved only by falling back continually from the web of our own arguments into the reality. From Christian apologetics into Christ himself."

    Now, Lewis was remarkable in this regard. He was an intelligent, highly educated, well-read man, who also had the good sense to doubt himself, to examine himself, which one cannot do without self-doubt. Lewis understood the spiritual...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    He sits in the dungeon, knowing that before the day is over he will be executed in the most brutal manner that Roman law allows. He’ll be scourged within a hair’s breadth of death, and then nailed to a stake to die slowly and painfully, paying for his crimes of insurrection and murder against the powerful Roman occupier.     Less than a half mile away, a powerful Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, fearing for his own career and life, struggles between the demands of both expediency and justice. An obviously innocent man has been railroaded into his presence. The religious leaders for whatever reason want him dead, a gruesome task that Roman law won’t let them carry out themselves, and hence their invitation to Pilate to do...

By: Ronald L. Dart

By: Ronald L. Dart

Is God everywhere? Is he in every leaf of every tree? Does he permeate the cosmos with his being? Is he in every blade of grass?

    Well, yes and no. God is in every blade of grass in the same way I am in a transceiver I built years ago and later sold. You might even find some of my DNA in that radio, because I got a little careless with my tools. But I am not there. I am here.

    God is in every blade of grass in the same way my wife is in the little painting she did years ago when we were playing with oils. But if you think you can put your foot on God when you walk across the grass, you are badly mistaken.

 
By: Ronald L. Dart

    Do you want to live forever? If there were something you could eat that would give you eternal life, would you want it? The search for a magic elixir, a fountain of youth, has preoccupied man ever since Adam was denied access to the tree of life. Legends of the ancient world told of a "Fountain of Youth." Ponce de Leon spent his life searching for it, but all he found was Florida.

    When you think about it, it is all the more strange that when Jesus finally told his disciples that there really was a "bread of life," many of them took that occasion to turn away from Him.

By: Ronald L. Dart

 

    What do you do when you have already done all you can? You are in trouble and there is no way out. You are sick and the doctors have done all they can. You are persecuted and there is no relief. You have made every effort, tried every option, and still see no way out. The matter is out of your hands. What do you do now?

By: Ronald L. Dart

    The Christian faith must seem downright confusing to an onlooker. Even the largest, seemingly the most monolithic Christian denominations are, in reality, composed of many factions. Unless you are an insider, you can remain unaware of the deep divisions that exist among Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans and even Catholics.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    It had been a hard three days. David and the handful of young men with him had left in a hurry and had taken no food. By the time they got to a place called Nob, they were in a bad way. They needed food and there was only one place David thought they might get something to eat. The Tabernacle at Nob.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    Just what does it mean to "keep the Sabbath?" What should a person do on that day? Or, as some would prefer to ask, what should a person NOT do? Can you work at your normal job? What about emergencies? Can you buy groceries on the Sabbath? What if you have unexpected guests? The Sabbath is indeed a holy day, and to worship God properly requires a right view of His day.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    It was the last night of the revival. The congregation was softly singing: "Just as I am," and the preacher was standing in front of the pulpit with both arms raised in invitation. He knew there were people present who needed to make a decision for Christ. "Jesus Christ could come tonight," he urged. "Will you be ready for Him?"

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Ideas have consequences, and that’s why doctrine is central to Christianity.  It’s true that Christianity is about behavior and relationships, and those are important things, but doctrine has a special place because it’s the lens through which we define how we act and how we relate

    A great example might be how you view the path to salvation.  If you believe there are many paths to salvation, your approach to evangelizing the Christian message will be radically different than one who believes that Jesus is the only way.

    If you believe salvation comes from keeping a set of rules and rituals, you will make different choices in life than someone who believes that salvation comes from God’s mercy. 

   ...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    The Middle East by reason of climate and culture is a dusty place. In Jesus’ day there was little in the way of paved roads, and consequently the feet of the sandal-wearing populous would pick up the common grime of the roads as they walked through life. 

    In addition to the dust that one would normally encounter walking, other sources of filth of a less savory kind were also in the streets of that day’s Jerusalem .  Livestock was abundant, given the contemporary need for transportation, economic necessity, and sacrifice.  Not only would the streets of Jerusalem be covered in dust and mud, Jerusalem would be awash in a mixture of dung and urine.  In a culture where the common footwear was the sandal, imagine how one’s...

By: Lenny Cacchio

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." (John 11:5)

    Jesus had a special relationship with family from Bethany.  We see him teaching in their home.  He dined with them. At Lazarus death he traveled from a long way off to be with the sisters in their grief and to call Lazarus from his tomb.

    We see these sisters and brother only three times in Scripture, and each time the family appears, we notice something unique about Mary.  Every time we see Mary of Bethany, she is at Jesus feet.

In Luke 10 she sits at his feet learning the ways of God.

In John 11 she falls at his feet in honor and worship.

And in John 12 Mary is anointing his feet in an act of service.

To learn,...

By: Lenny Cacchio

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. -- Matthew 11:29 NIV

    I’m a boy from the city, so for many years I misunderstood these words of Jesus.  I once thought that Jesus was painting a picture of me with my neck in the yoke with Jesus walking behind me, reins and maybe whip in hand, "encouraging" me onward.  

    That’s quite a picture of Jesus and how he supposedly operates.  I never focused on the implicit bad theology of me doing the heavy work and Jesus compelling me forward like a slave master in my life of toil and travail.

    One afternoon I was strolling around the square in the city of Liberty, Missouri.  Many of the...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Winston Churchill once said, "Writing a book is an adventure.  To begin with it is a toy and an amusement.  Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant.   The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the master, and fling him about to the public."  (Quoted in Winston Churchill: His Wit and Wisdom , Hyperion Books, p. 135)

    Over the several years that I have written this column, I have effectively written the equivalent of a book or two, and I can attest that it does become your master and tyrant after a while.

    The task of wowing one’s audience with brilliance week after week is daunting and not always successful, but it is fortunate...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    The Athletes in Action Super Bowl breakfast is an annual event sponsored by former Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr to recognize NFL players on the basis of character and service.  In February 2006, the day before Super Bowl XL, the award was presented to New York Jets running back Curtis Martin.  Tony Dungy delivered the keynote address, who a year later would be handed the Vince Lombardi Trophy as head coach of the champion Indianapolis Colts.

    On that particular Saturday morning, Dungy spoke of the two things closest to his heart, and neither had anything to do with the National Football League. His two great passions of family and faith were evident, for just weeks before Dungy had buried James, his oldest son. ...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    If I were the devil, I would plant a seed of doubt.  That would be easy to do in a skeptical age, for real miracles have an air of plausible deniability about them.  Someone is healed of a disease?  The body’s natural defenses did it.  Someone crosses your path as an answer to prayer?  Time and chance happens to all men.  You’re in need of a few bucks to pay the rent, and the exact amount shows up in the mail?  Somebody heard of your plight and wrote you a check.

    Plausible deniability affects us today as much as it did the people in Jesus day.   In spite of the great miracles Jesus performed, people still wanted a sign.  The very day after he fed a multitude by multiplying a few fishes and loaves, the very same people...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    My grandfather brought to this country his personal, wonderful tradition, which was the art of wine-making.  And he couldn’t have picked a better part of the world to ply this skill, for he settled in New York State, home to some of the best wine-making grapes in the country.

    He held nothing back when pursuing this passion, including a trip to the country to buy fresh grapes and carting them back to his basement in town.  I remember the elaborate apparatus where he squeezed the juice from the grapes, the fermentation process, and the barrels of red wine that were the result.

    One time – I must have been eight or nine years old – I was rummaging around his house and coming across a gallon jug into which he...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    It seems to be an anomaly that a loving God as depicted in the Scriptures would condemn the majority of people who have ever lived to an eternity apart from him.  That at least is the idea we get from traditional Christian theology.  Speaking of Jesus, Paul said, "There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12 NIV). Does that imply that billions of Hindus, Buddhists, animists, agnostics, and plain old decent human beings throughout history have no hope, for by dint of birth in time and place they never quite got the Christian message?     Jesus himself once said that "no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:43 NIV), while Peter wrote that God is "not...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    When Eve offered Adam that infamous piece of fruit, what should he have done?  The obvious answer, of course, would be to refuse it.  But what else?     What Adam should have done is found in part in an unusual High Day mentioned in Leviticus 23. "The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire.   Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. "  (Leviticus 23:27-28 NIV)     The Day of Atonement is more commonly known by its Hebrew name Yom Kippur.  In our English Bibles, the word kippur is translated "atonement", but a more precise translation would...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

“How Long, O Lord, Holy and True?” – (Revelation 6:9)

    In The New Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (Bridges-Logos Publishers, copyright 1997), Harold J. Chadwick states that there were more Christians martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined (p 323).  Such a statement is not at all outlandish if one thinks of the millions murdered by Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and even right now in places like Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, and other darkened corners of the world.

    It should also remind us to be thankful we live in a land that guarantees religious freedom.  Because we have been honored with the blessings of liberty, we have little appreciation for the tribulation that much of the world,...

By: Lenny Cacchio

Have you ever felt like this?

1.  “God, where have you gone?  Why aren’t you with me anymore?”

2.  “God, take this trial away from me!”

3.  “I am so distraught that I just want to go to sleep and never wake up.”

    If you have ever had those thoughts, congratulations!  You have experienced the same thoughts and emotions as your Savior.  Listen to his words.  “My God, my God!  Why have you forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:26)  “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”  (Matthew 26:39)  “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Matthew 26:38)

    The Apostle Paul was right when he said that “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man” (1 Corinthians...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. (Jesus, as quoted in Mark 2:17 NKJV)

    All of Jesus disciples were in need of a physician. James and John wrangled constantly over being the greatest in the kingdom, and Peter’s good intentions could not overcome his impetuosity. Matthew’s history as a tax collector implies an uncertain reputation.  Thomas had doubts, and Phillip lacked faith. Some of these men were so reticent that their voices are never heard in the Scriptures.

    All were in need of the healing of the Great Physician, and all save one accepted the offer of that gift. We are left to speculate about the reasons for Judas rejection of eternal life and of Jesus as his Savior, but there is one thing that we do know: Jesus came to heal those who are sick. He came to call sinners, but not the righteous, to repentance.

...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Lately I find myself yelling at the television set. I get angry when I see the stunts pulled by our duly elected officials, and I get angry with the garbage foisted upon us as entertainment, and I get angry at the lack of civility in public discourse.     I know that God gets angry about some things too, but I also know that God doesn’t get angry is the same way that I get angry. I get righteously indignant and want to throw my shoe at the tube. I compare myself to the other side and, like that little guy in the nursery rhyme, I boast, “What a good boy am I!” Somehow, I don’t think God expresses his anger in the same way I do, and certainly his motives are different. A few examples of Jesus’ anger illustrate the point: ...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

    He was wrapped in an enigma, and so he is now. For thousands of years theologians have bandied about how Judas could betray his friend and teacher for the price of a slave. The depth of evil is thankfully unfathomable to most of us, and the why’s and wherefore’s of Judas’ betrayal will be saved for a different discussion.     The question for today is the length to which Jesus went to save Judas from himself. Time and again Jesus both encouraged and warned Judas. Along with the other apostles Judas received power and authority over demons and he cured diseases (Luke 9:1-2). Miracles were performed at his hands! As an example, Jesus washed Judas’ feet in an ordinance of humility and service at the Lord’s Last Supper (John 13:4-5). ...

By: Lenny Cacchio

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” Jesus taught. “And who is my neighbor,” the lawyer asked. Well, what about it? Who IS my neighbor? For this lawyer in question the simple instruction to love his neighbor as himself wasn’t good enough. If we listen closely, we can hear his lawyerly logic: "If I am to love my neighbor, then I needn’t love someone who is not my neighbor." Hence the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus gave him an answer in the form of a parable (Luke 10:30-35 NKJV): "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he...